Paul Knauls, 94, depends on food deliveries from the nonprofit Meals on Wheels to his home in northeast Portland every Thursday.

Though he’s known by many as the unofficial mayor of Portland, “when I see the delivery person, it might be the only person I see all week,” he said. “It’s just a blessing.”

Knauls was among several dozen seniors who met with Oregon’s U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden Monday at the Martin Luther King Jr. Center in northeast Portland to hear about potential cuts by the Trump administration to Medicare, Social Security and federal grants that support Meals on Wheels programs across the country. Wyden has joined Meals on Wheels volunteers around the state many times over the years.

“Back there, some powerful, powerful people are swinging a machete to proven safety nets like Meals on Wheels so that billionaires keep getting those tax breaks,” Wyden told the crowd about the current administration.

“That’s not gonna happen,” he said to cheers from the crowd.

The most recent budget blueprint passed by Congress includes the potential elimination of the Social Services Block Grant program, which sends money to states for programs like Meals on Wheels. The draft budget also calls for $880 billion in cuts that cannot be reached without major defunding of programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, an analysis from the Congressional Budget Office found.

John Marick, treasurer of Meals on Wheels America, said the group provides critical food aid and care to seniors who might otherwise have no other choice but a nursing home or a hospital.

“Investing in Meals on Wheels is way cheaper than what happens when we’re not there,” he told the crowd.

Demand is likely to rise if other federal safety net programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, are cut, he added.

Dave McGann, a retired postman who has volunteered for Meals on Wheels in Portland for 20 years, talked about checking in regularly on people when he dropped off meals. He described one woman who fell in her tub, and who yelled for help when she knew he was supposed to be by, because he was the only person she’d see that day. He heard her yells and was able to call for medical help.

“We’re sometimes the only hope that people have when we come to their house,” he said. “It’s very important for us to be there.”

The Portland-based office of the Meals on Wheels organization relies on federal funding for about 35% of its $14 million program that provides thousands of meals to home-bound seniors in Multnomah and Washington counties in Oregon and Clark County in Washington every year, according to organization spokesperson Kelsey Allen.

In 2024, the group provided more than 1 million meals to 9,000 seniors, up 8% from the previous year, she said. Wyden said federal cuts could put “400,000 to 500,000 meals on the chopping block,” for the tri-county area.

“On my watch, it’s not going to happen,” he told the crowd.

Federal funding for Meals on Wheels is administered by the Community Living Administration, housed in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. But 40% of staff from that administration were cut in April by Trump officials. Allen says they don’t know yet how this will impact resources and meal deliveries in Portland and in the three counties they serve.

Counties receive the federal dollars and distribute the money to Meals on Wheels and other social and public health programs, and the next distribution of funding is supposed to occur in June. The bulk of the group’s funding comes from individual donations, she said, and the food preparation and delivery are supported by about 2,000 volunteers each year.

Congresswoman Maxine Dexter, a Democrat representing Oregon’s 3rd Congressional District, originally planned to attend the event with Wyden. She was instead in El Salvador with three other Democratic colleagues demanding the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man with protected legal status who was wrongfully deported to, and imprisoned in, El Salvador by the Trump administration.